Health Watch: Stepping up your foot care

Monday

Sep 27, 2010 at 12:01 AMSep 27, 2010 at 8:48 PM

Weekly health watch, with items on caring for your feet, the media's effect on disease outbreaks, eating at restaurants and more.

Staff reports

The average person takes 8,000 to 10,000 steps a day, according to the American Podiatric Medical Association. While this is considered healthy activity, maintaining foot comfort can be a challenge. Whether it's long days at work or hours spent running errands around town, you're constantly putting pressure on your feet.

"Fifty percent of adults suffer from tired, achy feet, especially if they have jobs that keep them on their feet all day," says Dr. Leslie Campbell, a podiatrist and consultant for Dr. Scholl's. "Many aren't getting the relief they need, but there are simple ways to help relieve foot discomfort to keep you on your feet longer."

The American Podiatric Medical Association offers these basic tips to help you treat your feet right:

Make sure your shoes fit. Try purchasing new shoes later in the day because that's when feet tend to be at their largest.

It's important to alternate footwear – don’t wear the same pair of shoes every day. Office workers should have three to five pairs of shoes on hand for business hours. If you're working on your feet all day, supportive, cushioned-sole shoes are essential.

Bathe your feet every day in lukewarm water with mild, moisturizing soap.

Other tips to consider can be as simple as being shoe savvy. Replace worn out shoes as soon as possible and think carefully before purchasing new ones that might look great, but provide minimal support or comfort.

-- ARA

New Research: Media coverage reduces outbreak stats

The media apparently plays a bigger role in maintaining the public’s health than anyone may have thought.

A new study conducted by mathematical biologists at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta and Marshall University in Huntington, W. Va., reveals that the sooner public health officials talk to the media during outbreaks of serious infectious diseases, and the sooner the media reports it to the public, the less the epidemic spreads.

"The more forcefully the media provides information about pandemic infections and deaths, the more the total number of infections is reduced. Media coverage also reduces the maximum number of infections at any particular time, which is important for allocating the resources needed for treating infectious diseases," study co-author Howard Weiss, a professor at the Georgia Tech School of Mathematics, said in a news release.

The thinking is that, during scenarios of outbreaks, people closely follow media reports and heed the advice that is offered: get vaccinated, avoid crowds, stay home when possible, wear a face mask, use disinfectants or cancel travel plans.

Weiss and his colleague Anna Mummert, an assistant professor of mathematics at Marshall University, used a modified version of a common infectious disease transmission measurement to create a hypothetical outbreak of Ebola hemorrhagic fever in Huntington.

"On a chart showing the number of infected people at any one time, as you increase the intensity of the media coverage, you substantially decrease the number of infections," Weiss said. "We are assuming that people self-isolate at a rate that is proportional to the amount of media coverage, though we would like to study that in more detail."

Did You Know?

Grand Rapids, Mich., was the first community to add fluoride to their municipal water supply in 1945. In 1951, water fluoridation was deemed a safe and effective way to combat tooth decay by the National Academy of Sciences’ National Research Council.

Health Tip

You may be watching your weight, but eating at restaurants nowadays can often be considered more of a social experience rather than a nourishment necessity.

If you don’t want to be excluded from lunch and dinner dates, try choosing a deli-type restaurant where you can choose exactly what goes into your meal. Try low-fat turkey or ham and whole-wheat bread, and load up your sandwich with veggies.

Number to Know:

24: According to the National Restaurant Association, 24 percent of American meals are eaten at restaurants.

Children’s Health

When it comes to ensuring that their babies sleep safely, new parents have to teach grandparents about current safe-sleep practices.

According to a new study conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs on behalf of HALO Innovations, grandparents are more likely than parents to place babies on their sides or stomachs to sleep, and more likely to place potentially dangerous objects in babies' cribs. This increases the risk for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and accidental suffocation.

SIDS and accidental suffocation are the leading causes of death for babies younger than 1 year old, claiming the lives of nearly 5,000 babies every year. Since the majority of parents and grandparents surveyed agreed that SIDS is their top concern in raising children, it's essential that all caregivers follow current guidelines:

Refrain from sharing your bed or putting more than one baby in the same crib.

Breastfeed, if possible, and offer a pacifier to babies for sleep (once breastfeeding has been well established).

-- ARA

Senior Health

Older people are at high risk for drug toxicity, a gradual buildup of prescription medication in the bloodstream. Symptoms include mental or physical disorientation, dizziness, blurred vision, memory loss and fainting.

Although it is a common and serious condition, it often goes undetected by patients and doctor alike. Drug toxicity can result from a medication dose that is too high or from a person’s ability to metabolize the drug too quickly.

Drug toxicity is "a major public health issue, even for people in their 40s and 50s," says Mukaila A. Raji, M.D., chief of geriatric medicine at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. "Most drugs are eliminated from the body through the kidneys and liver, but starting around the fourth decade we start accumulating fat and lose muscle mass, accompanied by a progressive decline in the ability of our kidneys and liver to process and clear medications. All of this makes us more prone to drug toxicity."

If you lose a substantial amount of weight while taking a prescription medication, there is a good chance that your body no longer needs as high of a dose. Be sure check in with your doctor about your weight loss and ask if your medication doses need to be adjusted.